Viola Davis says her mom introduced her to the concept of social justice at a young age

Viola Davis already had first-hand experience with the concept of social justice before most kids complete first grade. The actor and star of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (the film, which sees the late Chadwick Boseman take on his final role, is out this Wednesday, November 25) recalls attending protests with her activist and organizer mother, Mary Alice Davis, when she was very young."One in particular was at Brown University," Davis told AARP’s magazine in a recent interview. "The police threw us in the paddy wagon, and I was crying. I was 5 or 6 years old. I was a crybaby! It was all about welfare reform. She was the only African-American in the group, but she and several women, working-poor parents, showed up to fight for reform so we could have a more self-sufficient way of life. She wanted programs like Head Start in place so that we didn't have to stay on social assistance.”[video_embed id='2058789']RELATED: Trailer for Chadwick Boseman's last film released [/video_embed]Davis grew up in a predominantly white community in tiny Rhode Island where her father, who struggled with alcoholism, groomed horses and her mother worked as a maid while occasionally taking on jobs in factories. Her family struggled with issues like racism, food insecurity, unsafe housing, and domestic violence but the heavy load at home didn’t prevent Davis’ mother from advocating for her community. Davis, to this day, continues to sing her mother's praises for her incredible activist accomplishments."They got a health center built right next door to the Blackstone Valley Community Action Program," Davis told the magazine. "We all went to after-school programs there for as long as I can remember, with sewing, crocheting, knitting, nutrition classes. That's all we were allowed to do. My mom said, 'Y'all are going to be at those classes every Tuesday through Friday after school.'"

 

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The drive to fight for social justice sparked by her mother is something that Davis continues to carry with her. This year, especially, amidst the mainstream focus on the Black Lives Matter movement, she has made sure to use her platform as a celebrity to give a voice to communities that continue to go unheard, including the nearly 34 million people living below the poverty line in the U.S., making sure to highlight how their systemic disadvantages are tied to race and ethnicity.“Growing up living below the poverty line — you are no one's demographic. No one's fighting for you. And when you do get access to opportunity, the fight continues because you're coming from generations of people who were not given access to opportunity, so you have to learn it on your own,” she explains. “Do I believe that you can get out of it? Yes. But a lot of people don't, because the world belongs to people who have a ticket into that society. I don't want to get political here, so I won't get into systemic racism and the history of the systems that have gotten us to this place. But I will say that without dismantling all of it, we get nowhere. Nowhere.”[video_embed id='2038631']BEFORE YOU GO: Should racism be treated as a public health issue? [/video_embed]